Pham laments 'unfair' All-Star Game voting, lack of Rays coverage

The Tampa Bay Rays own one of the best records in baseball, but Tommy Pham doesn't believe his team gets the recognition it deserves.

With the 2019 All-Star Game approaching, several Rays players enjoying successful seasons were largely overlooked when the first balloting update was released on Monday.

Pham thinks these results are a travesty.

"We won’t get credit, man," Pham told Josh Tolentino of The Athletic on Tuesday. "It’s always unfair. Big market vs. small market. It’s never going to be fair. With Avisail and me, when I saw the ballot of the guys ahead of us - (Red Sox OF) Jackie Bradley Jr. and (Yankees OF) Brett Gardner - and they’re hitting around .200 or lower. That tells you it right there."

Of the Rays players eligible for the Midsummer Classic, only Austin Meadows was in a decent position to possibly start, sitting third among American League outfielders with 468,111 votes.

Pham insisted it's an MLB-wide issue and believes a lack of national coverage is to blame for the Rays' failure to reach public consciousness.

"When you look at the NL, too, you see all the big-market teams dominating the voting. It’s never going to be fair," Pham added. "It has to change because when you go into arbitration, that’s a big thing that’s talked about with accomplishments.

"Baseball has to be better to fix it. We’re not getting any help either from ESPN. We haven’t had an ESPN game all year. That’s a way for fans to see us by putting us on one of those big-time games. But we continually never get put on, so all they see is the same players. The Cubs, Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox - the same teams are always on there.

"When you look at it, all right, we’re in a small market, we’re never on ESPN. We don’t have a ton of national TV games. We’re at a disadvantage."

The Rays were overlooked by All-Star Game voters and decision-makers last season as well when eventual Cy Young winner Blake Snell was left out of the initial AL team. Snell was eventually added to the roster as a replacement for Cleveland Indians pitcher Corey Kluber, who was removed due to injury.